Smeraldo Flowers
Smeraldo flowers are a fictional species of flowers in the Bangtan Universe that appear in the BTS Love Yourself Highlight Reels. The Flower Smeraldo shop can be found here. History On August 9th, 2017, BTS member Jin posted a photo on Twitter of him holding a bouquet of blue and pink tinted flowers, with the caption simply reading, "Smeraldo". Fans were quickly able to search up information about the supposed flower and discovered that Smeraldo flowers did not actually exist. However, fans also found a blog that specialized in Smeraldo flowers, as well as an additional "Smeraldo Academy" Facebook page and an Instagram. A year later, with the anticipation of the new album Love Yourself: Answer, fans originally speculated that BTS would release an intro around the date of Jin's photo. Some fans suspected August 7th with updates on Smeraldo's Facebook page, while others suggested August 9th, in accordance with the date of Jin's photo. On August 9th, 2018, Love Yourself Answer: Epiphany Comeback Trailer came out. Blog The Flower Smeraldo blog contains seven stories about the florist "Testesso" and how he discovered the Smeraldo flower. The first story explains Testesso's plans to open a flower shop "specializing in Smeraldo" and how he discovered the flower while visiting the Annual Flower Conference at the American Florist Association. The second story then follows with Testesso's plans to import the flowers and open a shop in Korea. The third story then discusses the origins of Smeraldo, with its basis from the Italian legend La Città di Smeraldo (see "Origins: La Città di Smeraldo"), which is later detailed in the fourth story. As Testesso moves on from the legend, he talks about Smeraldo's history in the past. The fifth story goes on to refer to a playing card mentioned in the first story, detailing the significance of the Ashbless Card, which features the character William Ashbless and how he created the card after being inspired by the Smeraldo flower and legend. The sixth story features Madame Lennon, a famous astrologer, who was able to save the last remaining Ashbless Smeraldo cards after a fire. The seventh story returns to the present, where Testesso muses over his experiences of Smeraldo and celebrates the opening of his shop. The blog is known to have a few Easter eggs; for example, Seokjin Flower can be found in the blog's source code. Instagram The Instagram currently contains four posts. They include a drawing of a flower, two pictures of Smeraldo, and "The Truth Untold" written in Hangul, supposedly in Jin's handwriting. Facebook The Smeraldo Academy is the academy that Testesso mentioned that hosted the Annual Flower Convention he visited. Notable details include its foundation date (September 12, RM's birthday) and that it has existed the same number of years since BTS. Origins: La Città di Smeraldo From the fourth story of Testesso's blog, translated: Do you think you are beautiful? I once saw an experiment where people were asked to choose which door they would pass, the door with ‘I am beautiful’ on it or the door with ‘I am not beautiful’. If you were them, what would you choose? The reason I bring up this story, is to start the story of Smeraldo about love. The story of Smeraldo started in a rural village in northern Italy, around the 15th~16th century. In the village called ‘La Città di Smeraldo’, there was a small secluded castle. In that place lived a man with grotesque appearance. There wasn’t anything exactly known about the man. ‘He was the love child of a duke from a powerful family at the Pyrenees, the duke fell in love with the daughter of the gardener and gave birth to a love child, the mother of the man passed away from excessive bleeding after giving birth to the man, the wife and children of the duke wanted to kill the man, so the duke sent the man away to let him escape.’ There was a lot of rumors but no truth was revealed. The man hid himself in the old castle, lonely. Maybe it was because of the hatred and beratement that he received from birth and when growing up that he didn’t open his heart to anyone, he got angry and hid if someone tried to approach him. His only joy was growing flowers in his garden. But one day, a girl appeared near the man’s castle. The girl in ragged clothes lifted her heels, jumped over the garden fence and stole the flowers. The man was mad as a hornet at first, he spent the whole night to guard the garden. But in his brief moment of sleepiness, the girl picked flowers again and ran away. It happened for several days, until one night the man pretended to fall asleep and watched the girl go. He was curious. Without realizing it, the man waited for the girl, and one day he followed her. He covered himself with a cloak and after following here the man discovered, the poor and weak girl was selling flowers for a living. The man wanted to help the girl. He wanted to teach her every method of growing flowers he knew, he wanted to teach her how to grow beautiful flowers. But he couldn’t come forward to the girl. She would be scared of him, she wouldn’t love his grotesque appearance. In the end, the only thing he could do was to grow and take care of the flowers so she could keep coming to his garden. The man decided to make a flower out of this world. He started to make a flower that the girl could sell at an expensive price. The man shut himself in the castle to make the flower. After countless attempts, the man made a flower that never existed in the world, and filled his garden with that flower. But the girl was nowhere to be seen. No matter how much he waited, the girl wouldn’t come to his garden. The man grew concerned and went to the village with his face covered. But the girl was already dead. This was the story of Smeraldo. No one knows if this is a real story or just a story created by someone while watching the flower, but every time I see Smeraldo, this story comes to my mind and bring many thoughts. What if the man gathered his courage, showed his face and revealed the truth? The girl could be scared and run away, or she could get mad. Courage is not an easy thing. Actually, I had gone through a similar experience too. It was the friend I met at the Playing Cards Academy whom I mentioned at the previous post. I had a crush on that friend. She was bright, cheerful and full of light. After hearing about Smeraldo being discovered, we talked about flowers and promised to go to ‘La Città de Smeraldo’ together. It didn’t seem like she had nothing for me, because she told me let’s go together too. I still sometimes think of what happened then. Her face sparkling with curiosity and anticipation, scuttling away carrying big backpack, arranging the meeting, booking plane tickets and discussing the schedule with excitement. They were moments that I will never be able to forget. A wound that no time can heal. Parts of the legend are referenced in lyrics of The Truth Untold, such as Testesso wondering a different outcome if the man had "showed his face and revealed the truth. In the Highlight Reels To be finished later.Category:Theories